High School Students Demand Teacher Be Reinstated

A teacher at Southwestern High School in Piasa, Ill., will be reinstated after having been suspended for a controversial reading assignment. Hundreds of Dan DeLong's students showed up at a six-and-a-half-hour school board meeting to urge members to keep the 10th-grade English teacher on staff. DeLong had been suspended after a parent of one unidentified student asserted that an assignment on homosexuality in the animal kingdom was inappropriate.

According to The Telegraph newspaper in Alton, Ill., 200 students and supporters lined the stairs, sidewalk, and office space at the school district's office holding handmade signs and banners in support of DeLong. After a five-hour closed-door executive session, the floor was opened to members of the public who wanted to weigh in. Two spoke in support of the teacher, and no one spoke in opposition. Junior Bonita Stevey also presented the board with a petition in support of DeLong.